Pages

Friday, December 17, 2010

I made oreo truffles again this year. I'm sure I'll be asked to make them for many years. These weren't for family, friends or even Secret Santas. My Husband's coworkers love these truffles. I've told them how easy they are. I've told them that they're just oreos and condensed milk. They don't care. One of his coworkers specifically, talks about these truffles year round. She'll tell other coworkers "Have you had Matt's Wife's truffles?" I'm happy to oblige. I'm happy that I can make something so easy and they're so well received. So.. a week ago I set aside time on Sunday to make these truffles. I had two packages of oreos ready and waiting. I even used double stuffed. I didn't realize how many truffles two packages would make.

When making them, I used a cookie scoop, scooped it into my hand and then cut that in half. I didn't want ginormous truffles, bite sized was more realistic I thought. Well...that gave me enough truffles to send 6 dozen into work with Matt. We probably had a dozen left at home too.

I predicted that I'd get an email from his coworker that has my email address. The subject line "sooooo goooood". That's it. No message. I assume she was busy eating a truffle and didn't have time for any more words than that.

I'm sure you've seen these everywhere, but they're too yummy not to share. Besides taking these to work and being asked "did you use diet rollos".. (uhm, huh?) everyone loved them and were excited to have some.

Pretzel Candies

also called Turtle Treats

I don't have an original recipe

1/2 bag of pretzel twists

3 bags, yes 3, of rollo candies

1/2 bag (large bag) of pecans

white almond bark, optional

Turn oven to 250*. Place pretzels in 'single file lines' (as I told my Husband, my pretzel placement chief) on a baking sheet. Top each pretzel with a rollo candy. Put the baking sheet in the oven for a couple of minutes. Just long enough where you can tell that the candy is starting to melt. You do NOT want to melt the candy completely in the oven.

Take the baking sheet out and immediately take a pecan and squish down the rollo with the pecan. Let the candies cool completely. I left them out overnight, on the baking sheet, covered with plastic wrap. The next morning I drizzled them with melted white almond bark. The almond bark doesn't take too long to cool. Once they almond bark was hardened, I transferred the treats to an air-tight container and they were ready for sharing!

The most time consuming part of this recipe is unwrapping your rollos.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

I have been wanting to try a salad like this for awhile now. I made meatloaf the other night and wanted a healthier, lighter side dish to enjoy with it. I found this recipe that seemed quick and easy so I went for it!

Corn, Avocado and Tomato Salad

recipe from: Paula Deen via Food Network.com

(I'll note the substitutions I made below)

2 cups cooked corn, fresh or frozen

1 avocado, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup finely diced red onion

Dressing:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 teaspoon grated lime zest

1 tablespoon fresh lime juice

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Directions:

Combine the corn, avocado, tomatoes and onion in a large glass bowl. Mix together the dressing ingredients in another bowl, pour over the salad, and gently toss to mix.

My substitutions

I didn't have cherry tomatoes on hand, but I chopped up about two roma tomatoes that worked well.

I didn't feel like chopping an onion so I added some Tastefully Simple Onion Onion to the dressing as I mixed it up.

I didn't have fresh cilantro on hand, but I found these cilantro cubes at the grocery store a while ago and they worked great! I used two or three and the salad had great cilantro flavor. They were really handy and I am definitely going to use them in place of regular cilantro wherever I can.

I used fresh grated limes, then squeezed the juice of one lemon and used that as my lime juice.

My avocado wasn't ready yet so I let the corn, tomatoes and dressing sit in the refrigerator overnight until the avocado was ready. I would probably suggest doing this even if you add the avocado. It really let the flavors mingle.

This salad was delicious. I wasn't expecting it to have a lot of flavor and I certainly didn't think that my Husband would like it, but I was very surprised. He loved it and I did too! Ianticipate making this repeatedly this coming Summer (yes, I know it's only December) with fresh corn on the cob, or even roasting some corn on the cob and using roasted corn. Yum. This would be perfect for a BBQ picnic. Definitely a crowd pleaser!

With that being said... I'm going to go heat up my leftovers for lunch. Luckily I have some of this salad to go with it as well. Can't wait!

Directions:
Put the frozen peaches in the bottom of a greased slow cooker, then mix in 1/2 cup orange juice, 2 Tbsp tapioca, 2 Tbsp brown sugar and dash of nutmeg and stir all of these together until mixed.

Then mix in a separate bowl the absolutely almond pound cake as directed on the box with the butter and water, then pour this over the top of the mixture in the crockpot. Then cover and turn on high and let cook for 3 1/2 hours. Then serve with ice cream or cool whip.

Note: not all of these desserts were consumed in one night. This recipes makes A LOT and we enjoyed this over a few nights. Be advised...making this at 7:00pm is NOT a good idea. You'll be rushed to get a taste of this heaven and will probably burn your tongue.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish; mix well. Spread potato mixture in a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan. Arrange chicken breasts on top of potatoes. Pour desired amount of Smoky Bacon Grill Sauce over each breast. Bake uncovered at 400° for 30-45 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink and potatoes are crisp and golden brown. Makes 4 servings.

This makes a wonderful dinner, served with some vegetables. It also makes a lot so it's perfect for a couple days worth of lunches too!

This is a recipe that I first found in a Kraft Food and Family magazine, before they started charging for the subscription. I was so bummed when they did that, I loved getting that magazine in the mail! I don't have the heart to subscribe to it when I can go to their websites and get the same recipes.

I make it according to how big (or small) of a meal we need. If I'm making a small batch just for a lunch or two, I'll use a smaller amount of noodles etc. The italian dressing is also versatile, you can use as much or as little as you'd like. I don't really follow the recipe anymore, I just make it as I go. Those are the best kinds of recipes, aren't they?

My version of Low-Fat Zesty Shrimp Pasta
1/2 box of spaghetti noodles
1-2 cups of italian dressing
1 14oz can of artichoke hearts (you may feel like chopping these up a little if you don't want large pieces)
1 pint of fresh mushrooms
2 teaspoons Onion Onion
1 bag of thawed, pre-cooked shrimp (you can use raw too, if you'd like, you'll just need to cook accordingly)

While the noodles are boiling, toss the dressing, artichoke hearts, mushrooms and shrimp into a saucepan on medium-high heat. Let these all cook together until the mushrooms are cooked and everything is heated through.

Drain your noodles. Combine the saucepan mixture and the noodles with another 1 cup italian dressing. mix together and serve.

It's a simple, light dinner that you can tailor to anyone's tastes. Add some roasted red peppers for a little extra color!

This was a recipe inspired by this recipe on the Tastefully Simple website. I didn't have a loaf of bread and I didn't have the 25-30 minutes to wait for the bread to cook, so I improvised.

It's not a very pretty picture, but I promise you that it was delicious!

I had some small rolls that I had previously gotten on sale that I had froze. I took 3 out, let them thaw and then cut them in half. I combined a block of cream cheese with Artichoke and Spinach Warm Dip Mix, a 14oz can of artichcokes, some Kraft Parmesan Cheese (in the green container) and a cup of shredded cheese. You're supposed to use swiss cheese, but I just used what I had on hand.

Spread the cream cheese mixture onto your bread, pop it under your broiler for a few minutes, until the mixture gets a little more ooey gooey and the bread hardens up a little.

It really is, that simple! Everytime I do a Tastefully Simple party, when the guests sample the Artichoke and Spinach Warm Dip Mix, I can't wait to get home and make it myself. It's great with crackers/chips as a dip, but it's phenomenal on bread! I'm sure the recipe that I adapted from would also be fantastic and I'll most definitely be trying that.

This is a fabulous recipe that I found in a Pampered Chef recipe book called Delightful Desserts. I have had the cookbook for so long, I don't even remember when I got it. I first made this recipe for my Grandpa-in-law's, surprise 70th Birthday last year. It was a HUGE hit, I don't think that my Husband and I even got to taste any, it was gone that fast! More recently, I made it for my Cousin-In-Law's Graduation party, and again, it was a hit! I got asked by three different people for the recipe.

It's super simple, and super tasty. Definitely make this soon!

Also, think of the endless possibilities with this. You could use white chocolate chips, you could add craisins, toffee pieces... whatever your heart desires! I'd love to see what other toppings you make it with!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

I think my crockpot hates me. Even though I put sauce on the bottom of the crockpot like the recipe says to do, it burnt on the bottom. It also turned to mush. I know traditional lasagna isn't exactly firm, but these noodles were falling apart and had no consistency at all. It was edible though. It took awhile to prepare, but that's because I didn't have any leftover chicken breast in the refrigerator so I had to cook, cool and shred it the same day I was making it.

This was a quick and easy lunch I made for myself one day. I had some Tastefully Simple spicy black bean dip left from a previous season, my Mom had made some corn and black bean salsa that she left at our house and I had shredded cheese and sour cream in the refrigerator. The hardest part was deciding what I wanted to make with the ingredients. Nachos? Quesadilla? Burrito of sorts?

I decided to layer it all in a bowl. Bean dip on the bottom, salsa, cheese, sour cream, repeat.

It was really good. My eyes were much bigger than my stomach, because I couldn't eat anymore than half of it. The cute little bowl came in a chip/dip set we got as a wedding gift. Excuse my kitchen chair being in the picture. I think I need to invest in some backdrops or something :)

Combine all ingredients together and form into patties. I got 5 patties from the pound of turkey that I used. I had enough leftover for a very thin patty, but instead I formed it into a meatball. These would be great as meatballs for a quick dinner too.

Refrigerate patties for about 15 or 20 minutes. I did this while my Husband was preparing the grill, but I was hoping that since the patties were very moist, I wanted them to have time to stick together and try to prevent them from falling apart. It worked!

The patties were very moist and very flavorful. I love the Pineapple Chipotle salsa...ohmygoodness..yumyumyum! My Husband and I have already purchased and eaten two three jars. I have been meaning to try this salsa on grilled chicken breasts too, I think that would be phenomenal. I put some on my turkey burgers last night and that was great too. Good thing the salsa is only 1 ww point per 2 tblsps!

I'm getting quite adventurous in the kitchen, if I do say so myself. For Easter, I made Annie's Honey Yeast Rolls (although I didn't blog them) and over the weekend I made cinnamon rolls. I said "So Long" to our weight watchers lifestyle and let us have a "cheat" day. It was so nice, making a nice gooey, warm breakfast lunch for us. (They took about 2 hrs from start to finish...and I didn't start until about 9:30am)
They were really good, especially for it being my first attempt. The middle of the rolls didn't seem to brown as much as the rest. I *think* that may be due to the fact that I put a pan on the oven rack directly under the rolls to catch the caramel drips...anyone think that might be the case?

My rolls weren't the most uniformly rolled, and they weren't rolled as tightly as they could have been, but like I said, it was a first attempt, and they tasted good so it was a success!

I googled and got my recipe here. I would do a few things differently next time.

Maybe only make half a batch. This made 3 pans. For two people, that's an insane amount of carbs to be hanging out taunting you.

Don't be so cautious with the caramel. If you're going to ruin your diet, ruin your diet dangit. They only had a taste of caramel, I wanted the kind you get at bakeries and such that are overflowing with sticky, ooey, gooey caramel deliciousness.

Also put a little more cinnamon/sugar mixture on the dough before rolling. Again, I was pretty cautious with it and in the end, it could have had a little more cinnamon/sugar taste.

Roll the dough a bit tighter so the rolls stuck together more.

A benefit of marrying a fisherman...(clean) fishing line made cutting the rolls a cinch! Thanks, Honey!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

After uploading and putting this picture in the blog post, you can't really see the sauce or the shrimp and the tomatoes on the far left taco kind of look like a strawberry to me. Oh well. It's not a very pretty plate, but it's a delicious one, that's for sure! If you're looking for a quick, filling and tasty meal, you have to make these. We went from unthawed shrimp to taking our first bite in about 45minutes. My Husband and I prepared this together; he marinaded the shrimp, chopped up tomatoes and cooked the shrimp mixture while I prepared the sauce. Ok, so he more or less made dinner and I helped. It was still a lot of fun being in the kitchen together.

Shrimp Tacos

an Amy's Kitchen Creations original

1lb unthawed shrimp (we used 14oz of the pre-cooked kind)

Half a package of imitation crabmeat

a few leaves of cilantro

2/3 cup Italian Dressing

Marinade the shrimp, cilantro and dressing while you're preparing the sauce below. When the sauce is made, throw the shrimp (with about 1/2 of the marinade) in a pan to warm up. The sauce will boil a little and you may need to drain some of it out while you're cooking so that your shrimp aren't sitting in a bath.

Makes 8 tacos (4servings of 2 tacos per serving)

Spicy Avocado Sauce

an Amy's Kitchen Creations original

1 tblsp Franks Red Hot Sauce (love this stuff!)

2 tblsp Ranch Dressing (if you have fat free on hand, that would be even better!)

1 whole avocado, peeled

2 tblsp Light Sour Cream

I was originally going to mix this all together in a bowl, so I started with the ingredients in a cereal bowl but then quickly changed my mind when common sense kicked in and I knew that a whisk wouldn't get this to the consistency I wanted I attempted to use my immersion blender with the whisk attachment and I ended up whipping avocado chunks on my wall. Oops! That's when I knew I needed to convert ingredients to my blender!

Put all sauce ingredients in a small food processor(or blender, if the only FP you have is a ginormous one)and pulse/blend/whip it together until it is all combined and you get a nice smooth consistency. It's a thick sauce, more like a condiment than a sauce I guess. I wasn't sure what to add to it to get it more sauce like without risking points value (think taco sauce from a jar consistency), any suggestions? The sauce makes about 10 tablespoons (30tsps) and a serving size is 1 tblsp (2 tsps) for 1 point.

When the shrimp is warmed to your liking, take them off the heat, drain the remaining liquid and get ready to assemble your taco! We served these with 6" Fajita Carb Balance Whole Wheat Tortillas from Mission. (They're 1 ww point per tortilla and they're delicious!)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

This was a fantastic recipe! The picture doesn't really do it justice I don't think. It was a recipe that I created after we got home late one night from running errands, going to the gym etc. It was the first time I think I've ever breaded chicken with something. As you can see a few spots got a little darker than others, but overall it was delicious. The crackers gave it a nice crunchy coating while the vidalia dressing gives it a smooth flavor. The green beans on the side were a perfect companion.

Dip each chicken breast in the vidalia onion dressing, then coat it with the cracker crumbs. Place the chicken on a baking sheet sprayed with PAM. Bake at 400 for about 30minutes or until chicken is cooked through. Right after taking them out of the oven, sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

It's not the greatest picture, but the taste will definitely make up for it, I promise. I followed this Tastefully Simple recipe. The cheesecake was light, refreshing and a perfect dessert for a weeknight meal. It took no time at all to prepare, and was a hit with both my Husband and myself. I forsee this one a lot this Summer at potlucks and Birthday Parties!

Combine the cheeseball mix and the cream cheese, make sure to blend it well. Fold in the cool whip. Spoon the mixture into the graham cracker crust. Chill for 2hours. Garnish with the crumbs from pkg 2 of the key lime cheeseball mix. Makes approximately 6 servings.

**If you use a fat free whipped topping, and a fat free cream cheese, the approximate points values for one slice (6 slices per pie) would 5pts. If you use full fat cream cheese and full fat whipped topping the approximate points value is 10pts per slice**

This wasn't a succesful recipe, as you can see. Which is very unfortunate because my Husband and I love Chinese food, and I was excited to find a recipe for one of our favorites! I saw it on this blog originally. Doesn't her picture look much, much better than mine? Yikes. I was so sad to let such a tasty entree go to waste! What happened was, we were gone much longer than I thought we would be and so our lovely orange chicken dinner, shriveled up and burnt. So, so sad.

(eww... just think how fun it was to clean this up!)

This one is definitely on our list to make again, we'll just need to make sure we're home in time!

Ingredients

1.5lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into chunks

1/2 cup flour

olive oil for browning the chicken

1.5 tsps salt

6 ounces orange juice concentrate w/ no pulp, thawed

3 tblsp brown sugar

1 tblsp balsamic vinegar (I omitted because I didn't have any)

3 tblsp ketchup

Use a 4qt slow cooker for best results (this may have been part of my problem too,I was using a large slow cooker). Dredge the chicken in the flour, shake off the excess. When you're done dredging the chicken, throw away the remaining flour, you don't need it for anything else. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet and brown the chicken on all sides. Sear it so that it gets a nice coating on each side.

Put the chicken in the slowcooker. In a small mixing bowl, combine the remaining ingredients (salt through ketchup). Taste a little, if you'd like the chicken to be sweeter add a little more brown sugar.Pour the sauce mix all over the chicken and gently coat all pieces.

Cover and cook on low for 6hours, or on high for 3-4hours.

We had the intentions to serve it with white rice, but since we didn't eat it...no rice for us. You could serve it with a brown rice too.

Check out Krista's blog here, she's got some suggestions at the end of her recipe.

I made these for our Valetine's Day dessert. I don't have the recipe right now,it's in my Taste of Home cookbook which is at home. For now, I'll share the delicious pictures with you. They are huge puffs, and next time I make them, I'll make them a lot smaller. This was my first time making any sort of dough recipe and it was a tasty success! I will definitely branch out into making more dough recipes.

I've never had baked potato soup before but after seeing it on Stephanie's blog, it looked like something I'd really like to try. I have to say, I was unimpressed. I am pretty sure my disappointment comes from never having the soup before so I didn't know what to expect. It was definitely an easy recipe, and it surely makes enough for a large crowd. I'll add my suggestions after the recipe.

Make sure to use a large slow cooker. I'm not sure the size of mine, but I used the largest I had. Put the peeled and chopped potatoes in the stoneware of the cooker. Add the seasonings and pour in the broth. Cover and cook on low for 8hours or high for 4hours. When done, the potatoes should be fork tender.

You'll need to blend the potatoes, broth and seasonings all together. You can use your blender or an immersion blender. I used the immersion blender I got for Christmas from my parents. I love it! It was so fun to make, and it made a heck of a lot less mess than it would have it I had to blend it in my blender. (I'm a messy cook. If you can transfer from crock to blender back to crock without mess, go for it!) After that's all blended together, crumble in the cream cheese, cook on high for about 30 minutes or until the cream cheese is completely dissolved.

Dish it up, garnish and enjoy!

My Suggestions/Comments

I didn't realize how thick of a soup it would be. I swore I was forgetting something in the recipe, milk or more chicken broth or something. It was so thick. Almost too thick to even enjoy it. It definitely stuck to your ribs! The night we had it we had a friend's 7yr old Daughter over and she kind of picked at it, but mostly at the (turkey) bacon that was crumbled on top. I wouldn't say it's kid tested or approved.

Since we had 3/4 of a crockpot FULL of leftover soup, I added about a cup of milk to it and that really helped the consistency. I ate it a couple days afterwards for lunches, and then ended up tossing the rest because neither my Husband or I enjoyed enough to keep eating the leftovers.

I think I'll definitely try this again, maybe using more chicken broth and see if that helps, or if it really just needs some milk in it?!

Monday, February 8, 2010

Yum! This was so easy, so tasty and very refreshing! I prepared a Tastefully Simple Absolutely Almond Pound Cake, crumbled it up and layered it with fresh strawberries, banana slices and cool whip flavored with Tastefully Simple's Strawberry Chiller drink mix (just the powder).

You can purchase the Almond Pound Cake here. The strawberry chiller mix was a Seasonal item so it is no longer available for purchase. If you're interested in purchasing it and live in the Minneapolis area, email me (address along sidebar) and I can see if another consultant has one available.

This made quite a few servings and would be perfect for an Easter Dinner dessert, or even a picnic treat!

Monday, January 18, 2010

I don't have a picture of these tasty little morsels, but as soon as I make them again I'll definitely post a picture. They were so easy to make, and most of all, they were delicious! I made them for my Husband while he was watching the game and I thought he was going to eat the whole plate full! They are a Tastefully Simple recipe that I found when trying to decide what to make with the products I still have from Fall/Winter. Search all of Tastefully Simple's recipes by going here.

Spoon about 1 teaspoon of cream cheese mixture into each mushroom. You're going to have leftover cream cheese mixture, so feel free to spoon a little extra in, or purchase some extra mushrooms and you'll have a large recipe. (I spooned a little extra into each mushroom). When stuffed, put mushrooms in a glass baking dish (I think this would work better than the cookie sheet I used!) and broil on low for about 10 minutes or until cheese is melted.

WW pts= 1pt per mushroom. If you use full fat cream cheese and cheddar cheese, your points values will likely increase.